After many years of running on a series of old computers converted to Linux boxes and after a long downtime after the last one, a 2008 Dell notebook, died, this site is once again up, now running on MacOS. Sadly, I had foolishly set up the script to create database backups nightly so that it only wrote to a single file, overwriting it every night. The last time the job ran, it wrote only a small fraction of what it needed to do to create a full restoration script. I had to rely on a very old backup of a backup script from two years ago, thus losing my most recent posts and theme updates. I am still in the process of restoring this site, and have added a few different photos to use as header images with the “Radiate” theme. I hope to be a little more active posting things to this site as I continue working to restore it and get it up and running properly.
Author: john
Tour de Cure 2015
The obvious reason I ride in the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure, as I did the last seven years, is because I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 42 years ago. While I have seen amazing advancements in the treatment of diabetes over these decades, I look forward to further research and improvements. Most of all, I pray for the day that a cure is found.
In this eighth year that I ride in the Tour de Cure, I have more important reasons to ride, as shown in the photo on this page: my wife, Sara, and our twin boys. I would like to see a cure and, until that day, better treatments to ensure that I may share as long a life as possible with them. I want to see these two precious boys grow up, from their first day of school, to teaching them to ride bikes and join me on rides, to teaching them to drive, to teaching them to shave, to seeing their high school and, I hope, college graduation ceremonies. I would like to see how much Paul, whose face is the spitting image of mine from 45 years ago (ignoring his strawberry birthmarks), continues to resemble me as he ages. And I would like to see how much Michael, whose face bears a similar resemblance to Sara’s at his age, also resembles her as he ages.
I also pray that our boys do not inherit my Type 1 diabetes, and hope that research may prevent its onset or provide a cure should they be susceptible to it.
Please support me with a donation by visiting my Tour de Cure page and selecting the “Donate to Me” link. Our efforts will help set the pace in the fight against diabetes. So let’s get in gear and bike to beat diabetes!
Each mile I ride, each dollar I raise will be used in the fight to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.
No matter how small or large, your generous gift will help improve the lives of my family and more than 20 million other Americans who suffer from diabetes, in the hope that future generations can live in a world without this disease. Together, we can all make a difference!
Thank you for considering making a generous contribution to this cause that is so important to me.
Time for a Phisher to Step Up Their Game
So, yesterday, I got this stupid email:
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2014 10:01:34 +0300
To: [me]
From: Walmart <dcumbest@onsite-us.com>
Reply-To: Walmart <dcumbest@onsite-us.com>
Subject: Order Confirmation
The text, which is ridiculously small in the HTML presentation shown in the screen capture above, is as follows:
Online shop Walmart received an order, whose recipient is you.
The order can be picked in any local store of our network.Please, keep in mind, that you have only 4 days to reserve your order.
Detailed order information can be found here.
Walmart
2014 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Now, I know Arkansas (Walmart – or is it Wal-Mart – ‘s home) is not renowned for a high ranking among the states with regard to education. However, I would assume their marketing email would have slightly less stilted English, as well as being consistent in how they spell the corporate name. Now, given that:
- I have never shopped for anything on Walmart’s website – or “online shop Walmart”.
- This email from “Walmart” or “Wal-Mart” is from a “dcumbest@onsite-us.com”, even though I think Walmart is big enough to have at least one email domain with a name resembling the company’s name.
- I have never known any store to allow you to place an order for in-store pickup without choosing the specific store where delivery will be made, since it is kind of nice actually to have the item in the store’s inventory when you go to pick it up.
- Four days seems an awfully short time “to reserve your order”.
- The closing “copyright notice” neglects to include a “©” before the year and misspells the corporate name.
- There are the odd random acts of using commas.
How likely do you think it is that I am going to click on any link in the email? I wonder if the clueless phisher responsible for this is in some way related to the even more clueless phisher who sends emails from the “US Postal Service” stating that there is a package to pick up at any post office (because, of course, the USPS doesn’t deliver to your address by default, and it doesn’t matter which location you go to obtain the package), and includes “news headlines from the BBC” at the bottom.
Come on, guys. At least spend a little time researching how the organizations you are terribly attempting to spoof work.